Marketing to Latam: Burger King to Increase Panregional Budget from 1% to 5% of Total

One key panel during our 2011 Latam Advertising and Media Summit earlier this month was on “Panregional Marketing Approaches”. In our next three “Marketing to Latam” feature articles (which Portada’s editorial team publishes each Tuesday), we are going to highlight the main message of the panel participants. These were marketing heavyweights Roberto Ricossa, Americas International marketing Leader, Avaya, Jose Costa, VP Marketing Latin America and Caribbean, Burger King and Rebecca Barba, Manager Global Marketing & Communications, Royal Caribbean Cruise.

Today we are going to focus on Burger King’s Jose Costa’s participation. Costa explained that Burger King is going to increase its centralized panregional marketing budget from 0% currently to 5% in a few years. Burger King’s total annual ad investment in the region lies between $90 and $100 million.

Costa explained that the Burger King system operates more than 12,200 restaurants in 76 countries of which 1,147 are in Latin America. Four Global VP’s are in charge of the marketing in each region (North America, Latin America & Caribbean, Europe-Middle East & Africa and Asia Pacific).

Distribution of Burger King – restaurants in Latin America

Region/Country

Number of Restaurants

Mexico

415

Caribbean

264

Central America

118

Brazil

103

Andean Region

122

Southern Cone

125

Costa leads a team of 12 people in Miami, which is actively involved in supporting each Latam countries marketing policies, but has a particular strong say over Brazil and Mexico. Burger King Latin America has 20 different websites targeting consumers in Latin American countries.

Approximately 90 percent of BURGER KING restaurants are owned and operated by independent franchises, many of them family-owned operations that have been in business for decades.

Differences between Latam and other markets

Costa noted that the consumer in Latam is more family oriented than in other parts of the world. Burger King’s primary marketing and advertising target are families with young kids. Respect to woman is another feature which will drive Burger King’s marketing in the region going forward.